The East End Fringe Festival, a collection of original plays, poetry, short theatrical performances and a New Orleans Jazz Brunch, will run Wednesday, July 26, through Sunday, Aug. 6. Events will take place at various Riverhead venues.

On a recent Monday morning, lifelong Mattituck resident Peter Swahn got in his car and began driving toward Riverhead. His intended destination was his eponymous insurance agency, which had called 310 East Main St. home since 1962.

Three North Fork businesses, including both Harbes Family Farmstands, were listed as having critical violations over the past two years in a New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets database of retail food store violations. (more…)

Allied Optical Plan owner Jerry Steiner shows a customer a bottle of Manischewitz wine he received as a gift for passover. (Credit: Grant Parpan)

It’s Tuesday morning in downtown Riverhead and the going-out-of-business sale is unofficially underway at Allied Optical Plan on West Main Street.

At 9:52 a.m., about an hour after store owner Jerry Steiner releases the lock on his front door, the first customer of the day walks in. Marilyn Downs Aldrich, a lifelong East Ender and Aquebogue native, is looking for a new pair of glasses.

“Everything’s half-price,” Mr. Steiner tells her.

One day earlier, the 60-year-old businessman went to contract with a buyer for his building at 20 West Main St. Developer Georgia Malone, who recently renovated the now-sparkling building at 30 West Main, next door to Mr. Steiner’s business, hopes to do something similar with the brick structure that has housed Allied Optical Plan since 1975.

It’s the end of the line for a business that, its owner admits, died years ago. (more…)